With the advent of miniature video cameras, such as CCD (charged couple device) cameras, surveillance products incorporating such miniature cameras have dramatically proliferated. CCD cameras can now be hidden in numerous locations such as in pocketbooks, behind walls, in ceilings and within ordinary objects. Although to some the thought of hidden video cameras placed in unsuspected locations raises invasion of privacy issues and notions of George Orwell's "Big Brother," many industries today must use hidden cameras as an additional security measure in order to protect their inventory, premises and customers. For instance, financial institutions such as banks use hidden surveillance cameras to offer additional protection to their customers and to help guard against theft. Hidden video cameras are also being used more frequently in the home for the protection of children and personal property.
While it is oftentimes desirable to mount surveillance or closed circuit cameras in visible locations to create an awareness that an area is being observed, it is also desirable in many situations to use hidden or discrete surveillance cameras. Such discrete surveillance cameras can be located almost anywhere in a room, such as in a speaker, in an exit sign, in the ceiling, etc. For example, in one type of prior art discrete surveillance product offered by CCTV Corp. of South Hackensack, N.J. (model no. SD-100), a single CCD video camera is mounted in a housing resembling a household smoke detector. This surveillance product uses a single CCD camera and provides only one viewing area through a small hole in the bottom wall of the smoke detector. Because the smoke detector is normally located on the ceiling of a room, this surveillance device provides only a downward view of the room below and displays only the top of a person's head passing under the detector. This viewing angle can make it difficult to identify individuals passing below the surveillance camera. Moreover, since the camera is mounted in a fixed position in the detector housing, the positioning of the camera, such as setting the desired downward camera projection angle, cannot be adjusted without adjusting the position of the entire detector. Mounting the smoke detector at an angle, however, looks out of the ordinary to a casual observer and may tip him or her off that the device actually contains a surveillance camera.
As with the above-mentioned discrete smoke detector surveillance product, other "discrete" surveillance devices lack the ability of adjustable camera positioning. For example, while prior art "overt" surveillance devices have been available with an adjustable camera gimbal, such as model no. CM-200 from CCTV Corp., which provides a CCD camera completely visible to the observer behind a clear wall face plate and mounted on an adjustable camera gimbal, this type of camera adjustability is lacking in discrete-type surveillance devices.